I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to cake decorations and the like and more particularly to applying images to edible substrate material in sheet form to produce a decoration which can be placed directly onto an iced baked good, e.g., a cake with frosting, and eaten with the baked good.
II. Description of Prior Art
Cake and other baked good decorations are quite popular, especially among children. Such decorations typically consisted of hand-applied icing-based decorations and/or miniature toys placed onto the icing or frosting. More recently, in an attempt to satisfy commercial bakers, attempts have been made at providing mass produced decorations which minimize the need for the time and labor-intensive icing applications. Chief among such attempts is the decorated edible substrate sheet such as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,017,394 which is made by a silk screening process. As is well understood, the silk-screen process requires that the desired image be formed into several screens, one for each color. The screens are then used as templates to reproduce the image on the substrate by forcing edible coloring materials through the screen openings. The substrate may be placed on an iced or frosted cake and eaten therewith.
While the silk-screen printing process produces a decoration, that process is still somewhat time and labor-intensive. Moreover, with the silk screen process, the range of decorated designs has been somewhat limited. As the design must be formed into multiple screens, make-ready costs and inventory restraints limit the number of pre-made designs that will be on hand. Additionally, the silk screen process is an inherently low resolution process.
Many consumers are not satisfied with the limited design choices available. Indeed, many consumers would prefer to customize the decorations but cannot readily do so. By way of example, iced or frosted cakes having a decoration that depicts the face of the birthday child would be highly desirable. The silk screen process, however, is economically unsuitable for one-off or custom designs. Instead, such a decoration may be provided by placing the actual photograph or a reproduction thereof onto the icing. But the photograph or reproduction is not edible and so must be removed before the iced cake can be eaten.
An improvement to the photograph has been to provide a costly and complex cake printing system. In such a system, an electronic scanner digitalizes a photographic image, and a separate, electronic computer device drives a printer that sets over the iced cake to form the image directly on the cake. Not only is such a system slow, it requires several costly computer components. Moreover, the icing on the cake must be nearly perfectly flat so as not to impact or foul up the printer mechanism. The task of properly icing a cake for such a device is quite difficult and prone to error requiring greater sophistication on the part of the icer.
The present invention provides a method and for easily and quickly decorating iced baked goods in a virtually unlimited range of designs customized to the customer""s desires. To this end, and in accordance with the principles of the present invention, a plain paper color photocopy machine utilizing inkjet technology to reproduce the image is advantageously applied to the cake decorating art to thereby provide a simple, automatic way to apply a virtually unlimited range of color images to an edible substrate sheet which is then applied to the iced baked good. Thus, a method of decorating an iced baked good is provided by color photocopying a color image placed on the photocopy glass onto an edible substrate sheet passing through the photocopy machine and then placing the decorated sheet onto the iced baked good without concern for ideal placement of the icing on the baked good. The resulting iced baked good with the decorated substrate sheet may be eaten without regard to destruction or removal of the decorated substrate. Yet, the decorated substrate may contain virtually any image desired by the consumer including a depiction of the birthday child, by way of example, without requiring an inventory of different designs, multiple equipment items, highly sophisticated icing talents, or the time, material, and labor of a silk-screen process.
The nature of edible substrate sheets was thought to preclude their use in plain paper photocopy machines. Many edible substrate sheets have a very high moisture content and so would tend to gum-up the paper or copy path of conventional copy machines. Also, most edible substrate sheets are relatively flimsy sheets, and so would not likely survive a pass through the machine along the copy path. Indeed, the copy path in such machines is quite tortuous making them unsuitable for photocopying onto either flimsy or rigid edible substrate sheets. Additionally, color photocopy machines often employ a heating element to fix or dry the ink on the paper. Edible substrate sheets cannot tolerate the high heats involved and so would likely be damaged or destroyed during the photocopy process.
The present invention overcomes these various problems. To this end, and in accordance with one aspect of the invention, where the edible substrate is flimsy and/or has a high moisture content, the edible sheet is mounted to a supporting carrier which is passed along the copy path. With the supporting carrier, the flimsy or high moisture, edible sheet is held together to survive the photocopy process. Moreover, the traction mechanism used to pull the copy paper through the photocopy machine may grab at the leading edge of the paper and/or along the peripheral side edges of the paper. The edible sheet is sized so that it does not project to the leading edge and to the side edges of the carrier such that traction applied thereat will not damage the sheet, nor will the sheet gum up the traction mechanism thereat. To further protect the sheet, a thin polyester silicon adhesive tape may be placed over the leading edge of the sheet and onto the carrier thereat.
In accordance with a further aspect of the present invention, it has been discovered that the inks applied to the edible sheet need not be dried as is the case for conventional inkjet color photocopying. Thus, it is possible to disable the heaters such that the copy path is substantially unheated. As a consequence, the image can be reproduced onto the edible sheet without heating and without, therefore, deleteriously affecting the edible substrate sheet.
In accordance with a yet further aspect of the present invention, it has been discovered that the conventional paper path can be interrupted such that the copy path is substantially straight between where the edible substrate (and carrier, if provided) is inserted and ejected. In this regard, the plain paper color inkjet photocopy machine typically applies the inks to reproduce the image as the copy paper passes along a straight portion of the copy path which then continues in a straight path to the outlet. The reproducer and outlet path are referred to herein as a terminal portion of the copy path. The tortuous path is thus usually provided between the copy paper source, such as a drawer in the machine, and the reproducer mechanism in the terminal copying portion of the copy path. To this end, and in accordance with the yet further aspect of the method, the tortuous copy path is interrupted and a substrate input is defined adjacent the entry to the terminal portion of the copy path such that the edible sheet (and carrier) will traverse a substantially straight copy path so as to enhance survivability of the sheet as it passes through the machine, while also reducing the areas of the machine that could be gummed-up by the edible sheet.
Typical of color inkjet photocopy machines is the use of colored inks that allow for a wide range of vivid color reproductions. Such inks may be used to decorate edible sheets by photocopying in accordance with the present invention where the inks are not toxic. Advantageously, however, food grade inks formulated to be edible and using FDA approved FDandC food coloring are used.
By virtue of the foregoing, there is thus provided a method to easily and quickly decorate iced baked goods such as cakes that is simple, automated, and allows for a wide range of image designs. These and other objects and advantages of the present invention shall be made apparent from the accompanying drawings and the description thereof.